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A RARE SILK COURT ‘LION’ RANK BADGE, BUZI During the 17th century, under pressure from the Manchu to institute
17th century their own style of court attire, the shape of the buzi or insignia badges,
Made for a second rank military official, the badge colourfully became more exactingly square. Second rank military officers were
embroidered with a lion seated on its haunches with its bushy tail assigned square lion badges, such as the present example, which
flicked upwards and head turned to the left, surrounded by large were applied to the chest and back of their official robes. The bold
clusters of lozenge-shaped clouds, prism-like rocks and rolling waves, design of the present badge, with large lozenge-shaped clouds prism-
all worked in vibrant shades of green, orange, blue, yellow and white like rock, reflects the aesthetic developments of the later phases of the
couched silk floss and couched gold threads on a twisted blue silk Ming dynasty.
thread ground.
39cm (15 3/8) wide x 37cm (14 1/2in) long. The present badge was part of a large group comprising over thirty
similar silk badges, mainly representing lions and silver pheasants,
£12,000 - 15,000 once sewn into a large curtain or canopy from the collection of the
CNY110,000 - 130,000 Palazzo Corsini, Florence. It has been suggested that these badges
were likely assembled in Tibet to form a large hanging or a canopy.
十七世紀 獅子紋刺繡補子 For published examples of similar Ming badges from the Corsini
group see C.Hall, et al., One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles,
Provenance: Palazzo Corsini, Florence Hong Kong, 1995, pp.66-68; see also J.Vollmer, Silks For Thrones
The Plum Blossom Gallery, Hong Kong, November 1994 and Altars: Chinese Costumes and Textiles from the Liao Through the
A European private collection Qing Dynasty, Paris, 2003, no.12, pp.36-37. See also C.Hall, Power
Dressing: Textiles for Rulers and Priests from the Chris Hall Collection,
來源：意大利佛羅倫薩，Palazzo Corsini Singapore, 2006, p.240, no.69.
香港古董商，萬玉堂，1994年11月
歐洲私人收藏 A nearly identical ‘lion’ silk badge, Ming dynasty, from the Corsini
collection, was sold at Christie’s New York, 19 March 2008, lot 19.

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue. FINE CHINESE ART | 165